(To read in Italian) Here we are. The last day of January. The month has been almost exhausted. Where did the time go I wonder? It has gone away so quickly. It seems to have flown away. Even if we are on the threshold of February we are still in the middle of winter. For some of us it is…

(To read in Italian) I just finished reading “Case altrui” (Other People’s Houes) by Hilary Belle Walker. The first thing I did after turning the last page of the book? I hugged my dear dog Sinbad. Infact, Sinbad is still beside me trying to distract me from writing at the computer because he wants me to continue to cuddle with…

Repubblica TV talks about the candidates (To read in Italian) The 2012 Oscar nominations were announced today. Here is the full list of nominees. This time there were no Italian films nominated, but I did read in the on-line journal ANSA.IT that three italians were nominated for artistic contributions. Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo are candidates for production and…

(To read in Italian) It has been a busy week on the internet. If you are paying attention and surfing the web this week you would have noticed some unusual things. Wednesday, for example if you had gone to Google’s site you would have found the page with it logo blacked out along with a dozen other sites like Wikipedia,…

(To read in Italian) The command, yelled over the telephone by Gregorio de Falco, captain of the coast guard to Francesco Schettino the Commander of the Costa Concordia Cruise Ship, has become famous… and it has gone viral. The slogan has become a symbol of the disaster and you can find in on Facebook, Twitter and now you can buy…

Raffaello Sernesi – Tetti al sole 1861 I prepared this article on the Macchiaioli in English and Italian in collaboration with Jenifer Mangione Vogt for her on-line journals: Italian New York ™ & Italian South Florida™ . Italian New York ™ & Italian South Florida™ are lifestyle blogs inspired by Italian and Italian American culture. They feature stories about local…

(To read in Italian) At this point all the nativity scenes have been put back into the attic, but before leaving behind the Christmas holidays of 2011, I want to share with you one last story of how they celebrate the Befana in Riva del Garda. After all it isn’t over until the Befana sings the last song! Here is…

(Leggere in Italiano) The holidays are over and I have begun to take down the tree and put away all the holiday decorations. It seems that every year the holiday decorations multiply and I must find new creative means of repacking everything back into their respective boxes and shoving said boxes back into their hiding places in the garage. This…